"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Pretty solid. When you say this pledge you're saying that you're an American and you won't sell America out.

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Then it was revised in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy.

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"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The only change here was adding the word "to." "...and TO the Republic.." Pretty minor change. I'm guessing that if Bellamy were alive today people would call him a Word Nerd.

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It changed again in 1923.

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"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Here the change was from "my" flag to "the" flag, and added "of the United States of America." I think this was clarification. No substantial differences. I think changing "my" to "the" was probably intended to back laws saying what people can and can't do to the flag. "It's my damn flag, I'll do what I want" arguments no long work.

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The Pledge Of Allegiance was formally adopted by Congress on June 22, 1942.

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It changed yet again in 1954 to the version we know now.

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"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

"Under God" was added. This is a giant change as it changes exactly what the speaker is pledging allegiance to. This violates our country's separation of church and state. How this got in is beyond me.

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Fun fact. Right around this time political candidates starred ending speeches with "God bless you and God bless America." Someone thought it would bring in votes and when several political candidates started saying it, they all had to, because to not was political suicide.

And that still holds true. Is there a candidate running for anything higher than city council that doesn't say this at least once per speech?

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For the first 67 years, The Pledge Of Allegiance didn't mention God.

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Some guidance:

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(1/2) The Pledge Of Allegiance should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart.

I didn't know all this.

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(2/2) Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform.

I thought everyone was supposed to remove all hats, religious or otherwise.

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"The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion"...

Amongst other things. For this list we're just talking about the religion portion.

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So...The Pledge Of Allegiance says that you're pledging allegiance to God. This violates the first amendment.

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Why are we tolerating this?

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Our country is largely based on freedom of religion. People are supposed to be free to follow whatever religion they want: Christian, Judaism, Muslim, Rastafarianism, or any of the other many, many religions in the world today.

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Or no religion at all.

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Our country does not have an official religion.

This is shocking news to many people, but it shouldn't be, because this is exactly why we started his country.

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Many people who I consider to be good people, upstanding citizens, moral leaders of their communities, do not believe in the Christian God. Many don't believe in any higher power at all.

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If our country is based on freedom of religion, why is God mentioned in The Pledge Of Allegiance and on our money?

I may make another list about "In God We Trust."

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It pisses me off.

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The United States of America does not have an official religion. It doesn't have an official religion on purpose, for a reason.

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Because we don't want others forcing their religion on us.

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So why are we trying to push our religion on others? Or even on ourselves? Why are we pushing this on our own citizens?

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There was an alternate version, also written by Colonel George Balch which went:

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"We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!"

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We also don't have an official language, so there are several issues with this.